Retail CEO's react to Warner's Blu-ray shift
By Richard Lawler 
posted Jan 9th 2008 12:34PM
posted Jan 9th 2008 12:34PM
We are now in day five of the post-Warner Bros. announcement era and CNet has word from several retailers on their response (or lack thereof) to the newly-shifted HD landscape. The CEO's of Best Buy, Circuit City and "not any more or less Blu-ray exclusive than they have ever been despite what some executives might think" Target agree that its a step towards the end of the format war, but seem reluctant to call things over by any shot, or commit to changes in the way they deal HDM. Until further changes do -- or don't -- happen, the electronics aisle will remain divided.
I will keep an eye on Target. There may have been nothing to it, but during the Blu-ray press conference someone said (I think it was some studio guy) Target was going exclusive. Maybe he was mis-quoted, or maybe he mis-spoke, but it's still interesting to see what happens there.
Warner news was big it's going to take paramount and/or universal to kill this off for good.
We all know where it's headed, but until something else happens, HD DVD will suruvive on scraps for now.
Target already supposedly carries blu-ray to HD DVD 2:1 in their stores, and the Best Buys that I've been to have about 2:1 ratio of discs as well. I'm sure HD DVDs will continue to be stocked as long as they're still supported by Universal.
I noticed that SamsClub only has Blu-ray titles. Not that I care as its cheaper from Amazon anyway. They also only carry Blu-ray players.
that's funny.
My walmart only has HDDVD players.
The content is pretty much equal, one endcap a piece.
But on players, HDDVD only.
andy, do they sell PS3's? Our local walmart has had a prominent PS3 end cap with Blu-ray highlighted for months...could be that the PS3 represents Walmart's "Blu-ray player" offering...
I've noticed that targets BR section is at least 2x as big as HDDVD, but both are about 20x smaller than DVD. The local usually walmart has 6 HD-A3's in stock, no BR players, and no HDM. HDM is still small beans at this point compared to DVD.
Thank God there are still some intelligent people running businesses. Blu Ray fanboys please take note. Your format is doing well, but HD DVD is not dead. Unless a truck load of cash is delivered to your door step (re: Warner & Paramount) then you would be smart not to turn your back on a million customers.
Even though Warner and various other studios went Blu, that doesn't yet change what is on the shelves now. Discouraging a customer from purchasing more HD DVDs when in 6 months they could very well disappear completely from the support spectrum is a smarter move than lets say, letting the dumb customer buy it not knowing the state of the format war. I've found that generally with the Warner announcement, most HD-DVD owners have lost confidence in their format. The average Joe doesn't lose confidence in the format, but rather the closest factor to their purchase: the retailer. And a retailer doesn't want to lose customer confidence over a clearly failing and thus less profitable format (in face of the competition, anyway). Make the guys that want it look for it, but let the people who don't know jack buy the one that is more likely to sell. It is a disservice to the stock holders AND the customers to do otherwise.
Translation retailers are waiting to see demand for HD DVD to dry out first and clear current inventory.
Exactly
you must remember that after Xmas, figures that were reported were almost one million HD DVD standalone players sold. The normal consumers who don't keep up with format war news are just looking for some titles for their players. Sure sales took a nose dive after the warner announcement but blu didn't gain any either. We're still debating about a 2% market share here. There is still a long war to be battled and the HD DVD studios still know that. And if blu wins, and it probably will, they will then have a ton of people rebuying movies in the blu version. $$$
I noticed that the text the author of this Engadgethd article is quoting is not actually in the article he linked to.
"not any more or less Blu-ray exclusive than they have ever been despite what some executives might think"
What gives with reporting something that an article didn't actually say?
To sum up: The war isn't officially over until one format has all the movie studios and universal customer support. We ain't there yet folks.
Best Buy is the one to watch. Target is not a major retailer for HDM so their "exclusivity" is irrelevant. I know that BJ's Wholesale (Warehouse retailer similar to COSTCO in the North East Only) is BLU exclusive, but still insignificant. Sams Club and even COSTCO would make a difference, but Best Buy would kill off any format (HD-DVD) they decided to drop. Circuit City would follow suit on what Best Buy does. Walmart is irrelevant with HDM.
greetings from europe
Here everything is blu.
I really do not understand why Europeans seem to worship Sony.
No, not true. Everything is not yet. And trust me, not everybody is so fond of Sony in Europe
Rubbish. I don't know where people get the idea Europe is Blu at all. Certainly doesn't seem the case in the UK.
Though to be fair hardly anyone gives a rats about HD here anyway.
Our local Best Buy is interesting. They once had both Blu-ray and HDDVD titles side by side on the main isle facing the HD TV section and next to the New Release section. They recently moved the HDDVD around to the other side and dedicated the whole section to blu-ray (facing the HDTV area). HDDVD is now in isle 2 next to the regular DVD's (not very prominent spot). Furthermore, the store has 4 separate blu-ray players demoed and only 1 HDDVD player. Again the blu-ray players are in the area where the big HDTV's are and the HDDVD demo setup is over by the small tv's, away from the HDTV area.
This is subtle but it seems to me that our local Best Buy already favors blu-ray. This could no doubt be isolated to this one store but it was still interesting to me.
Oddly enough, out Best Buy here did something similar, but opposite in terms of what went where. They had the Blu-ray and HD DVD sections side-by-side on the same section as the new release DVDs (facing the console games in our store). Then I guess the sections got too big so they made the exsiting section HD DVD and gave Blu-ray an equal sized section on the opposite in the next aisle.
The display for the players are pretty equal though. There is both a BR player and an HD DVD player display set up on the main walkway in front of the HDTV section.
I haven't been back to Best Buy since the Warner announcement though... not sure if they've changed anything around yet.
Same thing here at my Best Buy in Bridgewater, NJ. I noticed that back in November.
aaaaw. It's cute to try to read in between the lines to find some hope for HD DVD.
The most telling quote of this article (Reuters):
Brad Anderson, Best Buy CEO: "It makes it a lot easier to see the likelihood that we get to one format, and it makes it easier for us as retailers to help push it to that one format. It’s time to get that (problem of movies not being on one format or another) solved."
Yeah Best Buy would be the one to watch.
Deeznuts are you are Star Wars fan? I think your name is a cheat code for one of their old games...
Vidikron (FU) I see your avatar how do you feel about BSG S1 being on HD-DVD? It's one of the reasons I own the addon drive ported through my PC because of things like Battlestar but it makes me wonder at what point will all box sets come out because they must lose money on sets they make if either end up on a losing format.
Ha, well wouldn't call myself a fan but don't hate them either, just think the movies are WAY overrated.
Name certainly didn't come from a cheat code, but its hilarious if they indeed use that as a cheatcode... means someone at LUCAS ARTS has a sense of humor!
Well, I do love BSG. Despite having both BR and HD DVD player, I was firmly in the Blu-ray camp and generally only rent HD DVD movies. So I was disappointed with BSG being on HD DVD. But then I heard about how poorly the first set of discs were done so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. Hopefully Warner going Blu will pull all the studios to the Blu-ray and we can get a Blu-ray release sometime in the not too distant future... and hopefully the release will be of better quality than the HD DVD release.
You know, I read this stuff from the "retailer CEO's", but I am not buying it. Let's face the facts, most of the HD content sold in November and December is still within the post-Christmas return period. I am returning all of my unopened HD DVD's. The retailers realize that if they publish now what they may be doing in the next 6 months in regards to dropping HDDVD, we will all get our wits about us and return all these players and movies that we purchased during the last 60 days. What a disaster that would be for the major retailers. They would be stuck with a bunch of returns that are simply not going to move near as fast now. If they wait until February, we are all stuck with the stuff, so it’s our problem, not theirs.
My 2 cents.
Why return them? I say keep them and get your monies worth out of your purchases. The format will probably fail, but it still offers movies to watch. Unless of course you never really wanted to watch the movies you bought in the first place.
You do realise that those returned HD DVD probably have more and better extras than the Blu-Ray counterparts. It will be a very long time before you get profile 1.1/2.0 replacements on Blu.
I got your Brian. I love watching the HD DVDs I have. The problem is that I see no point in investing in more movies when in 3 years when my player breaks, they are useless unless I re-buy them as Blu. It's like all of the VHS tapes I threw away because I refused to keep a VHS player hooked up to an HDTV. I could have bought VHS tapes 10 years ago, but stopped just as soon as DVD came out. I figure, I save the money and use it to buy a version on Blu that I will be able to play well into the future.
Here's a solution...
Combo players for everyone (and free/cheap upgrades for those with existing single-format players).
Result is those shelves in the stores will just become purple and no one has to care which format their favourite movie is on. The studios can continue to be exclusive to one or the other for their own reasons and we all move on happy.
Here's a solution...
Combo players for everyone (and free/cheap upgrades for those with existing single-format players).
Result is those shelves in the stores will just become purple and no one has to care which format their favourite movie is on. The studios can continue to be exclusive to one or the other for their own reasons and we all move on happy.